I suspect the big reason was money. Rootes didn't have any.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone
----- Reply message -----
From: " Ron Fraser" <rfraser@bluefrog.com>
Date: Thu, Jan 27, 2011 13:50
Subject: [Tigers] More cubes for Tiger
To: "'Thomas Witt'" <atwittsend@verizon.net>, <tigers@autox.team.net>
Tom
According to Bob Mannel's book; Ford last cast the 260 block July
1965 and assembled the last 260 engines in the fall of 1965 which is the
1966 Ford model year. These 260 blocks are the ones painted blue and there
is a good chance that the majority of these engines went to Rootes.
The exact reason why Rootes stayed with the 260, we may never know;
someday all the Rootes and Ford documentation about the 260 maybe found.
The big problem is finding all the information.
Ron Fraser
-----Original Message-----
From: tigers-bounces@autox.team.net [mailto:tigers-bounces@autox.team.net]
On Behalf Of Thomas Witt
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 12:48 PM
To: tigers@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Tigers] More cubes for Tiger
It seems very interesting that the 289 was available (at least to Ford) in
the 1963 model year, yet Rootes did not use the 289 until their 1967 model
year. To my knowledge the 260 stopped being used after the 1964 model year
(a few 1964-1/2 Mustangs were built with 260's supposedly to exhaust the
existing supply). I have Ray Miller's definitive book "Falcon" and he
indicates that in the 1965 model year only the 289 was available.
The 1965 Falcon and the 1965 Tiger were introduced at about the same time
and in their line up (Ford's) the 289 was the only small block V-8 Ford
offered. So, that leaves one to ponder why the 260 was used by Rootes two
years beyond Ford's production car use. And for that matter why they didn't
opt to, or were allowed to use the 289 in their race cars.
While there has been much reasonable speculation two things remain clear.
The 289 had already been in production through two (some may say one and a
half) model years before the first Tigers were sold. And while Ford had
ceased using the 260, Rootes used the 260 for two additional model years
after Ford had stopped.
I think the 1966 model Tigers with 260's are the "head scratcher." But
anyway, it all makes for good Tiger chat and I always glean something from
the discussions.
Tom Witt ("Monday morning quarterbacking" the 260/289 issue)
Subject: Re: [Tigers] More cubes for Tiger
> It's too easy to speculate about all of this. We don't know the
> correct answers and apparently no one asked the people who do know for
> a first hand account.
>
> According to Bob Mannel's book:
> The 289 was first cast in Dec 1962; this is part of the 1963 Ford
> model
> year
> The Fairlane 289 HiPo was introduced in Dec 1962
>
> I believe both of these engines were still in the development stage;
> some of the internal parts were not up to racing standards. I believe
> it took most of the next year to sort things out but it is not totally
> clear when these improvements actually happened.
>
> I also believe that FoMoCo was calling the shots about who got which
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